Typical aircraft beverage service includes attendant service of soda and juices out of aluminum cans and bottles. This creates a good deal of waste from the cans and bottles that must be stored in the aircraft galley or elsewhere. Offering canned and bottled beverages is also an expense for airlines. Research has shown there would be about a $0.07 savings per serving by switching from canned and bottled beverages to fountain beverages. However, there are challenges with offering fountain beverages on board an aircraft or other passenger transport vehicle.
For example, there is a great deal of complexity that goes into dispensing systems that are intended to be mobile, such as a dispensing system on an aircraft trolley cart. Additionally, there are regulatory issues to be considered when installing compressed air, such as CO2, on board an aircraft. Further, some of the more popular soda companies have very stringent requirements that must be met in order for a location to become certified in order to make and offer its beverage products. The requirements may include certain water temperature, water quality, syrups, carbonation, and so forth. Historically, it has been proven difficult for an aircraft to meet such certifications in order to offer fountain beverages on flights.
One attempted solution has it been to install a soda dispensing system on an aircraft trolley. These attempts have included a trolley that holds the compressed CO2, the soda syrups, the water, and a dispensing area. One example of such a bar cart has been designed by a company called air eltec, and is called “skytender.” This cart is advertised as a full service bar/beverage trolley that does away with the costs of canned beverages. Because this system is designed to traverse the aircraft aisle, it must be individually powered. Additionally, there is a single point of failure for such a cart. If any component of the dispensing area of the cart fails (such as problems with deployment of the pop-up panel dispensing area or the touch screen control system), if the cart loses power, or if any other portion of the cart system fails, the airline would be unable to offer beverage service for the entire flight. Accordingly, some airlines have simply determined that it is an easier solution to offer beverage service with cans and bottles in order to eliminate the potential failure issue, the certification issue, and the regulatory issues.
However, it continues to be desirable for improvements that would allow an aircraft or other passenger transport vehicle to offer fountain beverages on board.